Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur (left) and Lewis Hamilton have been close friends for 20 years. PDO
Put the foil hat on tightly.
Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s future (certain according to press reports) contract leaks to the public somewhat fittingly just barely a day after the F1 series scored a deliberate own goal by rejecting Michael Andretti’s dream of owning his own formula team.
Everyone knew that Liberty Media, and especially other teams, do not want to share their millions of profits into smaller slices. That’s why not even Cadillac’s handsomely booming name made the decision-makers support the umbrella organization Fia’s will.
Andretti’s stalling at this point was definitely the biggest PR loss for the F1 series, which has been in a positive cycle for a long time.
The next day, the newspapers get to hint about the issue that is happening matured in silence already with monthly sales.
At the same time, the interest of fans and partners immediately shifted to Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. It is a love marriage of two of the most successful giants in the sport.
Hamilton has always wanted to get into the red overall, and in Maranello the British champion is valued above all else.
The public was mostly surprised by the fact that Carlos Sainz’s extension contract, which was considered practically certain, stayed. The Spaniard was suspected to be interested in possibly Aston Martin or even the Audi team that will replace Valtteri Bottas.
61-year-old Carlos senior won the Dakar rally again with Audi’s blocky hybrid, and in addition, Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl is a family friend and Carlos junior’s former boss from the McLaren years.
It was the other way around. It was about Ferrari pulling Sainz out of the loop.
Sainz remains a statistic in this story, even though the Spanish press is already planting him as the number one driver for Mersu.
The journalists, however, slept through the big news: Hamilton and Ferrari’s union would have been predictable for everyone.
– I would be lying if I said that I haven’t thought about ending my career in another team, Hamilton admitted to ESPN in connection with the Azerbaijan competition last spring.
The story continues after the picture.
Ferrari boss John Elkan belongs to the powerful Agnell family that founded the Fiat group. PDO
After that he said something that surely piqued Maranello’s interest.
– I remembered my history at McLaren and at the same time watched the Ferrari drivers on the track. Naturally, you wonder how I would look in red.
Ferrari boss John Elkan didn’t need another invitation. He sent a message to team manager Fred Vasseur, to whom Hamilton owes a great debt of gratitude.
We know the 55-year-old aircraft engineer as a lovable gentleman who always makes Mervi Kallio laugh. Although he is now in arguably the most visible role of his career, Vasseur’s greatest success can be found in the junior classes.
Lewis Hamilton had failed miserably in 2004, and McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh even dropped him from the team’s training program for a while.
Vasseur then became a saving angel. He first mediated the dispute between the teenage super talent and Whitmarsh and took advantage of the situation to loan Hamilton to his own minor formula team.
Hamilton didn’t look back. He won 15 starts out of 20 F3 races in the 2005 season and at the same time grew into the GP2 team owned by Vasseur.
When the Brit then also conquered the GP2 championship, it was also understood at McLaren that this boy should be kept.
He made his debut in formula one at the beginning of the following year and fought for the championship until the last race.
The irony of fate is that one Kimi Räikkönen took the championship from under Hamilton’s nose. And it’s still Ferrari’s latest drivers’ World Championship title.
ART team manager Vasseur (right) talked with Hamilton in his twenties before the GP2 race in Monaco. PDO
Vasseur naturally has a direct number for Hamilton, and the phone lines have been hot for a long time.
– I have talked with Lewis every week for probably 20 years. If we had made a deal every time we talked, I would have gone bankrupt, Vasseur blurted out at the end of last year.
The joke was so good that no one could take it as true.
According to information from Sky Sports, the Hamilton Ferrari contract will be announced during Thursday.
The F1 season starts in less than three weeks with the three-day winter test in Bahrain. Interest in the sport has not been this high for a while, and no one wants to discuss the injustice Andretti experienced.